No civil litigation against the DA (Terry McEachern), but it's worth noting that he is the only prosecutor in living memory disciplined by the state bar for withholding evidence. He was later arrested over a DWI and lost his job over that indiscretion, not the Tulia episode.

The counties involved in the drug task force did see civil litigation - if I recall, they settled for $6 million total.

Scott:Although the documentary itself just touches on the public policy ramifications of the Tulia story, the discussion guide you link to above goes into the matter in considerable detail.

Unfortunately, the unwieldy coalition that eventually exposed the problems in Tulia will never get media coverage. Journalists are storytellers and the story always works best when there is a single protagonist. In the case of this documentary, the hero is Jeff Blackburn. If the Tulia movie is ever made (and that is by no means certain) Vanita Gupta will be the prime mover.

Groups like the Texas ACLU, Friends of Justice and the Kunstler Fund will rarely be mentioned at all. The only problem(apart from the bruised egos of those involved) is that the impression is created that one individual or organization can single-handedly overturn the business-as-usual workings of the criminal justice system. It takes a diverse coalition; it takes time; and it takes luck. If Tom Coleman wasn't a psychopath it would have been impossible to overturn the Tulia sting. What happened was frightening; but it was all perfectly legal.

DA McEachern was appointed DA way back, maybe as far back as the mid 80s, (Alan Bean would know), and never had to face an opponent in an election until 2004. He had always been on the Democratic ticket, but ran as one of three candidates in the Republican primary in 2004, and came in third. It probably was the DWI in NM that did him in although the Tulia drug sting didn't help him any. He was unpopular with Hispanics,(he messed over a lot of them), and Irene Favila of Plainview was instrumental in getting many Hispanics registered, who then voted in the Republican primary and thankfully turned the rascal out.

It's been 10 years and even though these and other similar situations have been exposed little has changed. Innocent people are still being convicted by corrupt cops and DA's who only want convictions, regardless of innocent or guilt.

Being from Tyler I know grits is aware of a similar situation that occurred her in the late 70's that was the basis for the book Smith County Justice. Nothing has changed in 30+ years in Smith County. We still have law enforcement that is willing to lie under oath to convict the innocent and a DA's office that ignores evidence of innocence, knowingly allows perjured testimony, withholds evidence and make undisclosed deals with jailhouse snitches.

It is sad that an entire county of people and in a larger perspective our state are judged by this incident.

There are many good people in the Tulia area of all races. Unfortunately people are attempting to label Swisher County and Tulia residents as racist because of one dishonorable police officer.

However, although rarely mentioned I happen to know (from inside knowledge) that many (but to be fair not all) of the people arrested in the drug raid actually admitted to selling drugs when questioned by the FBI.

I was also a prison guard at a facility where two of the Tulia defendants served their time. They were extremely violent individuals while incarcerated.

Basically I believe that Coleman was a crook and had no business wearing a badge. However many of the people that were arrested were crooks as well and have since committed serious crimes.

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